"I'd be hard pressed to dismiss you, Rena, even if you did cause some sort of damage," Thomas admitted, almost reluctantly. "You know as well as I do that you've made yourself indispensable here, these last ten years." Sometimes he still couldn't believe it had been quite as long as that.
"I used to do the same thing, when I was a boy," he added, looking back to Bridget. Perhaps it wasn't the ideal environment to raise a child, especially a little girl, but the pub was Thomas' family's livelihood for several generations, and it at least guaranteed that Bridget always had food on the table and a roof over her head. "She's-"
But whatever Thomas had been about to say, it was cut off when the cook sounded a bell from the kitchen- dinner was ready. Thomas turned toward the kitchen, where several hot plates were already waiting to go out and cook was serving up more. He motioned for Rena to follow him- he'd help get dinner passed out, rather than leave all the work to her.